Excited frame vibratory conveyors are known in the art. For example, the Office's attention is directed to U.S. Pat. No. 4,313,535, which is incorporated by reference herein, and which describes an exemplary excited frame conveying apparatus that has performed extremely well in the past, and which is useful for transporting bulk products over relatively short distances. While these earlier designed excited frame conveyors have operated with a great deal of success, shortcomings have been attendant to their individual designs, and which have limited their use to conveyors having relatively short bed lengths.
The Office is also invited to study U.S. Pat. No. 6,655,523, and which relates to an excited frame conveyor, and excitation process for same, and which is directed to an excited frame conveyor which is useful for conveying bulk product over increasingly longer distances. The teachings of this particular patent is noteworthy because it describes a synchronizing control for actuating the drive motors in a starting sequence and wherein the first motor is activated and allowed to progress to a predetermined RPM, that is associated with a minimal, lateral vibration of the conveyor bed. Thereafter, the second drive motor is activated approximately at the same predetermined RPM as that of the first motor. The drive assembly, which is provided, drives this novel reciprocal conveyor bed at an operating frequency which is greater than the first natural structural frequency of the frame during normal operation. In order to achieve the benefits as identified in U.S. Pat. No. 6,655,523. The drive assembly is activated so as to ensure minimum lateral (horizontal) movement of the frame. As described in this patent, a failure to minimize this lateral motion could result in the energized motors actually amplifying the lateral motion in an adverse manner, if the starting sequence is not followed. Various other designs of vibratory conveyors have also been taught and disclosed in the years which have passed since the issuance of U.S. Pat. No. 4,313,535. Examples of other designs of excited frame conveyors include U.S. Pat. Nos. 6,659,267; 5,265,730; 6,349,817; and 6,041,915 to name but a few. These prior art teachings are incorporated by reference herein.
Common among the deficiencies as seen in the prior art practices is that manufacturers must fabricate or provide relatively stiff or heavy base frames in order to prevent lateral, sideways motion of the frames, and conveyor beds, during operation of these devices. This requirement to provide a relatively stiff base frame comes with a price, that being, as the excited frame vibratory conveyor gets longer, the cost of fabricating the vibratory conveyor gets increasingly more expensive.
Attempts have been made to design and then fabricate various motor mounts and other vibratory engine mounting arrangements in order to reduce the costs of fabricating more expensive and heavy vibratory conveyors. While some of these efforts have been somewhat successful, problems remain relative to fabricating cost-effective, excited frame vibratory conveyors having increased lengths and reliability.
Additionally, experience in the field has demonstrated that as the vibratory motors have increased in horsepower, detrimental, vertical motion is sometimes imparted to the base frames upon the energizing of the respective motors. As might be expected, and understood by those skilled in the art, this vertical motion of the base frame is not advantageous, especially when such vibratory conveyor devices are located on overhead second, or mezzanine production or factory floors.
An excited frame vibratory conveyor, which addresses these and other shortcomings attendant with the prior art devices employed, heretofore, is the subject matter of the present application.